This paper explores the methodological and discursive transition in Aurel Voina’s theoretical conceptualisation of cosmetic science. The primary focus is the rewriting of personal and professional identity, assessing how Aurel Voina negotiated his conceptual and practical expertise from his role as eugenics ideologue and policy maker in the i…[Read more]

This paper draws on the letters and messages and newspaper clipping held by the BBC Written Archives Centre in relation to the 1954 adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four as a case study for considering how we understand the historical reception of programming. This production is particularly useful in this regard because it achieved a certain…[Read more]

‘Folk horror’ has often been considered, following Mark Gatiss’ description of the genre, as centrally focused on a particular ‘obsession with the British landscape, its folklore, and superstitions’. While these elements are clearly significant, they become more problematic when opening up the genre to include texts from beyond Britain. Not only…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: La población del planeta Tierra ha sobrepasado la cifra de siete mil millones de habitantes. Comentamos las reflexiones de Fred Spier sobre el crecimiento y el desarrollo sostenible, desde la perspectiva desilusionante que ofrece la crítica de Alfred Bartlett a los modelos de crecimiento, y en relación a la noción de equ…[Read more]

Appearing for the first time in English, Art and the Working Class is the work of Alexander Bogdanov, a revolutionary polymath and co-founder, with Vladimir Lenin, of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Bogdanov was a strong proponent of the arts, co-founding the Proletarian Culture (Proletkult) organization to…[Read more]

This paper examines the influence of urban fashion ideas disseminated worldwide from France and how they impacted the Romanian ideas of style and beauty, as well as the nature of the communication between Paris and the Little Paris. My aim is to decode the interwar Romanian interpretation of the new woman notion and assess what type of role…[Read more]

This paper examines the influence of urban fashion ideas disseminated worldwide from France and how they impacted the Romanian ideas of style and beauty, as well as the nature of the communication between Paris and the so-colled ”Little Paris”. My aim is to decode the interwar Romanian interpretation of the new woman notion and assess what typ…[Read more]

The newly formed Greater Romania engaged in a process of modernization, with Bucharest as its flagship metropolis, striving to be recognized internationally and reach economic stability. Women’s fashion became a marker in substantiating Romania’s self-assertion as a modern state, with great emphasis on creating a viable textile industry. This occ…[Read more]

This paper proposes a journey between Bucharest viewed as Little Paris and the original Paris, to determine the way in which the two capitals communicated with each other, whether it was based on dynamic interactions, beyond a simplistic Parisian dialogue. I will interpret Little Paris as an identity construction, clearly mirrored in the universe…[Read more]

In the period 1929-1936, Romania evolved from a traditional agricultural society to a modern, cosmopolitan and consumerist society. Bucharest, its capital,synthesized these transformations. The ideal of beauty – as reflected in fashion – was subject to the same processes of modernization and commodification. Beauty contests showed how the cha…[Read more]

This paper delineates the conceptual variations between the notions ‘fashion’, ‘dress’ and ‘costume’ in English-language texts on women’s garment histories using relevant examples from interwar Romanian periodicals. The aim is to offer a more precise formulation, as these three terms have largely been used interchangeably. This paper is built on a…[Read more]

Interwar Romania was a space of social-cultural contrasts which it wholeheartedly embraced. Bucharest, as the capital, was the perfect mirror of Romanian society, a liminal space, geographically and culturally. Women’s fashion and beauty in interwar middle-class Bucharest, offers a wide array of unexplored research questions which are addressed i…[Read more]

En Cuba han existido numerosas asociaciones para profesionales de bibliotecas, pero por su alcance y relevancia han destacado dos: la ACB (1948 – 1959) y la Ascubi (1986 – actualidad); ambas respondieron al nombre de Asociación Cubana de Bibliotecarios, pero con identificadores diferentes. A partir del análisis de los propósitos y activi…[Read more]

Book review:
Pilar Cagiao Vila (Coord.). Diplomacia y acción cultural americana en la España de Primo de Rivera. Madrid: Marcial Pons – Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, 2020.

Comprendo que están Vds. hartos del Covid-19 y de Mascarillas, Vacunas, Pautas, Cierres Primetrales e Incidencias Acumuladas. Más que yo, no. Y sin embargo les ofrezco más información al respecto, en tres fases para no agobiarles. Primero: tres recomendaciones nada más—una conferencia, un artículo y un vídeo. Es información esencial—…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: ‘Modernidad Líquida’ de Zygmunt Bauman ofrece perspectivas iluminadoras para la interpretación de muchos fenómenos característicos de cultura y la economía del siglo XXI. Leemos a su luz la política de endeudamiento y déficit sistemático de los estados nacionales, y en concreto de España, promovida en años recientes por el establ…[Read more]

This mini-essay was published as part of a “dossier” of authors discussing various forms of “queer inhumanisms.” In my piece, I address the relations between queer studies and post/humanist studies through the lens of Michel Foucault’s 1981 interview, “Friendship as a Way of Life.” These relations are tied together in critique but also in various…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: Comentarios sobre la guerra desde un punto de vista etológico y evolucionista, sugeridos por el libro de Javier Falgueras ‘Somos Hijos de la Guerra’. _________________________________________________________________________________ English abstract: Disquisitions on war from an ethological and evolutionary perspective, suggested…[Read more]

There were six waves of regionalism in Western Europe and Russia: in the decades of the 1830s, the 1860s, the 1890s, the 1920s, the 1970s and the 1990s. Russian regions were not behind Western European ones but rather went through the same stages of development at the same time or sometimes even earlier, until after the Stalin era, when they did…[Read more]

An commentary upon the poet Spencer Reese, and more specifically, upon Reece’s “addresses” in his book “The Clerk’s Tale: Poems” (Houghton Mifflin, 2004) in light of Barbara Johnson’s work on the “apostrophe” in her book chapter “Toys R Us,” in her book “Persons and Things” (Harvard University Press, 2008), and also in light of Graham Harman’s…[Read more]